


Boundaries

by TheHomestuckWhovian



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Blood and Injury, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 23:06:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19327954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHomestuckWhovian/pseuds/TheHomestuckWhovian
Summary: They'd been through a lot, the two of them. They'd been through a lot physically and emotionally and yet no part of this had gotten easier.





	Boundaries

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by a [piece of art](https://fox-conscious.tumblr.com/post/163471205164/no-one-said-it-was-going-to-be-easy) by [fox-conscious](https://fox-conscious.tumblr.com) on Tumblr from a couple of years ago. I found it recently and just had to write a story about it.
> 
> Also, this is based more on the anime than the manga, because the anime is what I'm more familiar with.

The kishin soul he got for this mission almost didn't feel worth it.

Beneath all the pain and anger  ~~and fear~~ he knew that it was, that they risk their lives for this for a reason and that he and Maka both agreed that they were going to do this, that he was going to become a Death Scythe and that she was going to be the one who helped him do it, but at the moment he was more caught up in the fact that Maka was leaning all of her weight on him, breathing heavily and looking exhausted as they stumbled into their apartment, and that they were both bleeding and in pain and looked like they were run through a meat grinder.

They'd been through a lot, the two of them. They'd been through a lot physically and emotionally and yet no part of this had gotten easier.

Some things had. When they started out, Maka would have thrown him out of the bathroom, a book smashed into his skull, no matter how injured or tired she was. Soul would have gone bright red at the sight of Maka in even her underwear and made a snide comment to deflect from the embarrassment. And the fact was that they were always fucked up people who had decided to close themselves off from the world, building up invulnerable shells that nothing could break through around their souls.

Now, Maka didn't fight back when he drew a bath and helped her strip down, and Soul didn't even react at the fact that Maka was naked because the two of them had seen too much of each other to care anymore. You didn't open your soul to someone like they had had to and come out without some broken boundaries.

He sat there as she laid in the tub with a towel under her head, eventually her exhaustion catching up to her and sending her into a painful sleep. He sat there and wondered how the fuck he had gone from a musical prodigy, following in the footsteps of a family he didn't really understand anymore, to risking his life for a shot at becoming a weapon for the actual embodiment of death alongside someone who, internally, was just as fucked up as him. 

If he had gone the route he should have, if he had become a famous pianist playing his parent's work and keeping his music to himself, he wouldn't have scars, he wouldn't know the pain of what felt like having his chest ripped out in an attempt to save one of the people he cared about more than anything, he wouldn't know the pain of watching someone he cared about sleeping in a bathtub with water that was pink with her blood, her eyebrows furrowed in pain because even in her sleep she was hurting but still too tired to stay awake for even a moment.

He chose this. He chose to leave that life behind and most of the time he was happy with it. Most of the time he could be sarcastic and grin and take the hits from a book thicker than his skull, and most of the time he could look at what he had chosen and decide he'd never change his mind.

Hell, he wouldn't even change his mind in that moment.

It was hard and it hurt, physically and emotionally (and considering the black blood bullshit, it also wasn't exactly kind to his sanity), but he'd rather have this life than that one.

He'd pick Maka over that life, no questions asked.

Knowing that still didn't make sitting there easier. It didn't make the fact that he had to see the person he cared about probably more than anyone else in the word in pain easier. 

The door creaked open behind him, and he turned to see Blair peeking in.

He expected a comment on the fact that neither of them were fully dressed, expected her to say something insensitive and annoying that made him regret ever been friends with her. Instead, though, her ears drooped and she mouthed a silent question as her eyes flitted briefly to Maka.

He held out his hand and shook it, the closest he could get to a "sorta" without saying anything to disturb Maka. Blair gave a silent nod and shut the door, leaving the two of them alone again.

On some level, he knew Maka would be fine (and on some level he knew that Maka was never fine, because Maka was like him in that way), but that didn't make the her pained expression easier to handle.

It was about an hour later when he took a deep breath and reached out, gently shaking her shoulder. He winced at the pained grimace that came to her face before she blinked her eyes open wearily.

"It's probably safer to sleep in a bed," he told her, keeping his voice quiet. She looked at him a moment before shifting to better meet his eyes.

"I'm not going to bed until you're okay too," she told him, with that same stubbornness that she had with everything, from arguing over who got control over the remote to telling him that she wasn't going to let him get hurt again. And Soul would have loved to argue, would have loved to tell her flat out that she needed sleep and he could handle himself, but she met his eyes with her's and he knew there was no room for argument this time.

The next hour was spent using their well-stocked first aid kit, cleaning and disinfecting and bandaging each other's injuries, far from the cleanest job, but neither of them comfortable with going to the DWMA and getting treated there (they weren't the most trusting people on a good day and Medusa had been proof enough that they couldn't just leave their health into the hands of others so easily). They were silent, meticulous, and neither bothered to hide their pained expression from the other at the sight of their bloody and broken bodies.

There was nothing left to hide, at this point. Maka had literally gone into his head to save him from himself, and Soul had literally pulled her back from a black-blood fueled madness.

The door creaked open again, and a pile of clothing was dumped onto the floor before it was shut. The two of them looked at each other, simultaneously decided not to look a gift cat in the mouth, and dressed themselves in the pjs Blair had decided to give them. Then Soul slung Maka's arm over his shoulder and the two stumbled to Maka's room, and she flopped on her bed with an audible wince.

He turned, ready to leave, but before he could a hand circled his wrist and he was pulled back onto the bed by Maka, who looked at him with a silent request that he didn't really have it in him to deny. Instead of getting up, he turned and allowed Maka to pull the blankets over them, his exhaustion catching up to him quickly.

"Night," Maka mumbled sleepily.

"Night." And when he closed his eyes, sleep took him only moments later.

No one said this was going to be easy.

But Soul wouldn't pick any other option.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey...hey...Soul Eater was my first anime...and I am not over these two at all.
> 
> In all seriousness, I love their relationship and don't mind whether it is platonic or romantic because either way, it makes me happy. And then I saw the artwork and I instantly decided that I just _had_ to write _something_ for it. This story isn't explicitly SoMa tbh while the art was literally tagged as such, but I guess it fits with the vagueness of the show.
> 
> It has been a long time since I've seen Soul Eater, so I hope the characters aren't OOC.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading. Bye.


End file.
